Still Licensed to Be Indie

Oscilloscope Laboratories, a Year After Adam Yauch’s Death

Adam Yauch, left, the founder of Oscilloscope Laboratories and Dan Berger and David Laub, its co-presidents.Credit
Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times; Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times

“W. W. A. D.?”

That was the question — a wry twist on the evangelical invocation of Jesus — that Dan Berger and David Laub, the co-presidents of Oscilloscope Laboratories, an independent film company, were considering as they prepared for a visit by a reporter. The issue at hand: whether Oscilloscope’s staff should dress up in crisp white lab coats for the meeting, which was to discuss the company a year after its founder and leader, Adam Yauch, better known as MCA of the Beastie Boys, died at 47, after a three-year bout with salivary gland cancer.

To the unknowing visitor, it was slightly unsettling to open the door to Oscilloscope’s wood-paneled offices in a former paint factory on Canal Street in the South Village and encounter a dozen or so straight-faced employees dressed as lab technicians. It was funny, but also like stepping into the middle of a joke.

“Adam absolutely would have had that idea,” Mr. Berger said, after copping to the stunt. “He inflected this good humor in everything he did.” Both Mr. Berger, 30, and Mr. Laub, 31, chose not to don the coats, but followed the office dress code for men, still in place as dictated by Mr. Yauch: ties, button-down shirts, no jeans or sneakers. Mr. Berger complemented his monochromatic grays with argyle socks, while Mr. Laub dressed in a checkered shirt and khakis. They looked more like high school film club presidents than executives, but that’s not necessarily a negative in today’s independent film world, where passion and social media savvy can have more relevance than a sense of authority in a boardroom.

“They do look like kids,” said the director Todd Louiso, 43, whose love story “Hello, I Must Be Going,” was released by Oscilloscope in the fall. “But Adam wouldn’t pick people who weren’t on his level. In fact, they are three steps ahead of everyone else.”

It’s been an emotional, roller coaster of a year for Mr. Berger and Mr. Laub, who had been deputies under Mr. Yauch and his primary partner, David Fenkel. When Mr. Fenkel made plans to create a new company, A24, in the beginning of 2012, Mr. Yauch anointed Mr. Berger and Mr. Laub just weeks before his death, telling them over the phone, “Let’s do this,” but adding an expletive.

Mr. Yauch died the day after Mr. Fenkel’s departure was officially announced, and though Mr. Fenkel stayed on a few months to assist in the transition, it was “a crazy time,” Mr. Louiso said. “But they pressed on.”

Three weeks after Mr. Yauch’s death, the Oscilloscope team went to the Cannes Film Festival, where it acquired the Italian film “Reality,” which would go on to win the Grand Prix award (the equivalent of runner-up). The company’s acquisition pace — about a dozen films a year — didn’t slow. And it released its highest grossing film in its five-year history, the nonverbal documentary “Samsara,” which made $2.7 million in theaters. It also took the ambitious gamble of releasing an LCD Soundsystem concert documentary, “Shut up and Play the Hits,” as if it were a concert, showing “one night only” in more than 160 theaters, more than any other Oscilloscope film, and earning $510,000.

Those successes belie a more uneven track record. Of 11 theatrical releases under Oscilloscope’s current regime, none has been a critical home run, and eight took in $100,000 or less — often much less — at the box office. One year after Mr. Yauch’s death, gags might still be integral to the culture of a company he founded, but they send mixed messages about whether the company can move ahead.

“Adam embedded a philosophy in the company we will always have,” Mr. Laub said. “But there’s a balance between cherishing that and figuring out when to be more independent.”

Photo

Julia Stiles and David Cross in “It’s a Disaster,” released by Oscilloscope last month.Credit
Oscilloscope Laboratories

In February, Oscilloscope announced that it was releasing “It’s a Disaster,” a low-budget apocalyptic black comedy, through Twitter’s Vine app, which allows the widespread sharing of six-second videos. The 88-minute film would be seen in its totality through the snippets, marking “the future of film distribution,” said a news release.

It was a prank but also low-cost marketing, sly branding and perhaps a way to honor a boss and mentor — one who would bond with a filmmaker over a shared love of flamethrowers — and at the same time grow a business that, Mr. Berger said, has been profitable the last three years. The company declined to release figures. How a company can be a financial success when most of its films have sold so few tickets reflects the business model of some independents, said Doug Stone, president of Box Office Analyst, which analyzes and forecasts receipts for Hollywood studios and their art-house units (but not Oscilloscope). For instance, a distributor can spend very little on film rights and advertising and keep the theatrical release limited, but earn income primarily from television rights, DVD sales and video-on-demand outlets like iTunes.

Mr. Stone, who ranks independent distributors by box office, said Oscilloscope was “barely on the list.”

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Mr. Yauch’s wife, Dechen, now owns Oscilloscope, and she shares Mr. Berger and Mr. Laub’s confident outlook. “Dan and David completely know what they are doing,” Ms. Yauch said in a phone call in response to queries about their age and experience. “In their case, youth is not wasted on the young.” She said she has been impressed to see the office lights on when she’s driven past late at night.

The director Kelly Reichardt, whose features “Wendy and Lucy” and “Meek’s Cutoff” were released by Oscilloscope, said: “Adam wanted a work environment where people like going to work. And for everyone to feel creative.”

Mr. Fenkel had more commercial inclinations, Mr. Berger and Mr. Laub said. For instance, his new company, A24, released the violent drama “Spring Breakers,” which has earned $14 million this year.

Mr. Berger said: “We sometimes approach a filmmaker and say, ‘Maybe we won’t make a lot of money.’ That might not be worth it for other distributors, but it is for us.” (Mr. Yauch once said he was drawn to movies that were “not marketable.”)

Mark Magidson, the veteran producer of “Samsara,” said he was impressed by the company’s understanding of theatrical venues beyond Los Angeles and New York. Still, distributing films is a “what-have-you-done-lately-business,” he said. “They just have to keep choosing interesting films and make them work.”

Coming Oscilloscope films include “After Tiller,” a documentary about late-term abortion providers, and the documentary “These Birds Walk,” about a Pakistani orphanage.

For the last year, the company’s Web site featured an image of Mr. Yauch holding a banana like a telephone, with text honoring his legacy. It was recently taken down.

“They were all really influenced by Adam,” Ms. Reichardt said. “But the company’s their own now. Even if Adam were alive, nothing stays the same. They can’t run the company guessing what he would do. Anyway, Adam was a ‘go for it’ person.”

A version of this article appears in print on May 12, 2013, on Page AR21 of the New York edition with the headline: Still Licensed to Be Indie. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe